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One of Mariah Carey's biggest career highlights gets thawed out each holiday season, overheating her bank account in the process.
"I love the holidays," Carey told FOX 5 NY in 1994. "Every time Christmas rolls around, I get ideas for different Christmas songs, and I've been kind of pushing them aside, pushing them aside, and last year, I just decided to do it."
The result was the iconic 1994 song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" — and the Grammy Award-winning singer has been cashing in on Christmas ever since.
Carey, 55, earned an incredible $60 million in royalties when the song was first released, Forbes reported, and she now rakes in an estimated $2.5 million to $3 million annually for the hit, which is featured on Merry Christmas, her fourth studio album.
While the entertainment artist grows richer every time the holidays roll around thanks to the tune, she's also become synonymous with the season, especially on streaming platforms. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has amassed nearly 800 million views on YouTube and became the first holiday song on Spotify to surpass 2 billion plays — a feat Carey told People was "beyond incredible."
According to Spotify, the track has taken the top spot as the most listened-to song on Christmas Day for the past eight years. Carey expressed her gratitude to "listeners around the world who've made the song part of their holiday tradition year after year."
The entertainer told ABC News last year that while working on the song she focused on capturing the joy of the season and making it "timeless," asking herself, "What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?"
"And that's what started it," she said.
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